Entertainment education is a useful means to initiate social change. When the principles were applied to create the radio soap opera, the 104 episodes broadcast over the Voice of Ho Chi Minh City contributed significantly to farmers’ belief and practices (Heong et al 2008). Listeners significantly reduced their insecticide applications by 60% and changed their beliefs favoring insecticide reduction. Vinh Long TV, Southern Regional Plant Protection Center and IRRI collaborated in developing a 20 episode ecological engineering TV series which was launched on 23 June 2012 .

The launching event was broadcast live nationwide through Ving Long TV with a panel discussion hosted by Ms Ngoc Hoa . In the panel were Prof Nguyen Van Huynh of Can Tho University, Mr Nguyen Van Liem of Vinh Long province department of agriculture, Mr. Ngo Luc Cuong, deputy director of Southern Plant Protection Center and Dr K.L. Heong of IRRI. Other speakers from the audience included, two farmers, Mr Pham Thanh Xuan, Deputy Director of Vinh Long TV, Dr Nguyen Huu Huan, Deputy director general of Plant Protection Department and Dr M. M. Escalada of Visayas State University, Philippines.

The ecological engineering TV series “Cong Nghe Sinh Thai”, a 15-minute TV program on ecological engineering aired on Vinh Long TV at 1640 hours every Saturday has started broadcast on 23 June 2012. It will be replayed 0800 hours every Sunday. The program, structured to combine entertainment with education, has three parts:

The three comedians in the TV series

Part 1 – Entertainment – This part is a funny vignette that revolves around three characters categorized as “positive”, “transitional” and “negative” with regard to their attitudes toward ecological engineering. Three farmers, Chu Chin, Ba Cai and Tam No, played by three popular Vietnamese TV comedians, meet in the rice field to tackle the question, “What is ecological engineering?” The scene opens with two farmers in the rice field who are about to spray insecticides on their rice crop. A third farmer with a basket of fish arrives and tells the other two farmers that he has caught a lot of fish. He then asks the two farmers what they were up to. When they told him that they were about to spray, he replied that he has stopped spraying because he has planted flowers on his rice bunds which gives him more time to catch fish. “Ruong Lua Bo Hoa” or rice fields with flower on bunds or “Cong nghe sinh thai” or ecological engineering is what it is called, he says. The two farmers ask him how flowers on the bunds can protect the rice crop. He invites them to see his rice field. The negative farmer casts doubt in the idea of flowers on the rice bunds when he says that ecological engineering must mean using a sprayer tank and a farmer dabbling with flowers must be queer.

The next scene shifts to a Tam No’s ecological engineering field with an abundance of flowers on the rice bunds. Here Tam No tells Chu Chin and Ba Cai that flowers on the rice bunds attract beneficial insects which in turn kill the planthoppers and other insect pests. Before Part 1 fades out, the question flashed was:”What is ecological engineering?”

Part 2 – Education – In response to the question in Part 1, this part provides the scientific explanation. In this episode, Dr. Nguyen Van Huynh, Can Tho University professor’s discusses what ecological engineering is and the scientific principles involved.

Part 3 – Summary – This part summarized the key points learned from this episode and announces the topic of the next episode, “Benefits of ecological engineering”.

The May 2012 issue of Truoi Tre, a popular magazine in Vietnam featured ecological engineering. A Google translate of the article is available. It describes ecological engineering through flowers on the bunds as ecologically sound methods that will reduce insecticide inputs, increase profitability, will protect the environment and farmers’ health. In May 2010 Prof Nguyen Van Huynh of Can Tho University explains the concepts and describes the advantages of the ecological techniques in Nong Nghiep, a popular agricultural daily newspaper.

The Department of Agriculture in Ben Tre province has also featured ecological engineering

The post campaign survey in An Giang was conducted in March 2012. Table 1 shows changes in some key variables. Farmers’ insecticide sprays decreased by about 5.3% from 3.4 to 3.2 sprays per season. This is on this high side compared with neighboring province, Tien Giang, where farmers’ insecticide use is less than 2 sprays. In both provinces farmers’ applied their first sprays about 38 days after sowing approaching 40 days which indicates that less farmers were spraying their crops in early crop seasons.

Table 1: Pre and post campaign practice and production changes of farmers in An Giang province
[table id=25 /]
We used the same 15 belief statements as in Tien Giang and computed the ecological engineering belief quotient (EEBelQ) as described by Escalada et al. The belief quotient ranges from 0 to 1.0, where 0 indicates complete lacking in belief and 1.0 indicates perfect belief. In the pre campaign belief quotient was 0.649 and this was increased in the post campaign survey to 0.668 – a significant increase of 2.9% (F=6.3 p = 0.012). The belief quotient for Tien Giang was 0.676, comparable to that in An Giang (0.668).

Farmers in An Giang remain fearful of leaf folders that seldom cause any yield loss and apply blanket sprays.

We also computed the belief quotient relating to planthopper control (BPHBelQ) based on 11 belief statements with 0 indicating extreme negative beliefs and 1 indicating perfect positive beliefs. We found that it was strongly correlated with EEBelQ (Pearson’s = 0.413 **). However change in BPHBelQ between pre and post campaign was only slight and not significant (0.575 to 0.585 F=1.02 p = 0.313). Farmers’ insecticide sprays were negatively correlated to both EEBelQ (Pearson’s = 0.132**) and BPHBelQ (Pearson’s = 0.216**). In a regression analysis with farmers’ insecticide use as the dependent variable and two belief quotients as the independent variables we found:

In pre campaign

Number of sprays = 4.26 – 1.34* BPHBelQ – 0.181*EEBelQ

Post campaign

Number of sprays = 4.81 – 1.77* BPHBelQ – 0.876*EEBelQ

It appears that farmers’ sprays are more strongly related to beliefs related to planthopper control than in beliefs related to ecological engineering.

Farmers in An Giang continue to target leaf folders and brown planthoppers in pre and post campaign surveys these 2 pests accounted for 88.9% and 92.9% respectively of all sprays. More than half of these were targeted at leaf folders (54.7% and 53.0% respectively) which have doubtful benefits to farmers as leaf folders have little impact on yield loss. Thus there are lots of opportunities in An Giang to further reduce insecticide use by about 50%. Compared with Tien Giang, insecticide use is relatively high in An Giang, 1.75 compared with 3.19 sprays per season.

When we visited the area near dusk the sounds of frogs were impressive. However fields visited in mid day had hardly any insects or natural enemies giving an apparent lack of natural biological control services in the area. When we interviewed farmers they described the huge numbers of frogs the fields had but we were surprised that they did not think frog were important predators. Farmers seemed to associate spiders as natural enemies and yet frogs are far more ferocious predators than spiders. Some of the frog species are important protein source as well see report. Frog farms are also common in the Mekong.

Such areas where frogs are abundant have rich wetland habitats and deliberate efforts to grow nectar rich flowers to increase natural enemy biodiversity seem redundant and unnecessary. Since frogs are highly sensitive to insecticides, it might be more worthwhile for plant protection authorities to focus on preventing unnecessary insecticide through avoiding prophylactic spraying, spraying for leaf folders in the first 40 days after sowing and farmer training and support to appreciate the ecosystem services provided by conservation of frogs.

Ecological engineering to restore biodiversity and ecosystem services into rice landscapes was launched in Tien Giang province by HE vice minister Dr Bui Ba Bong in September 2010. The campaign that included the use of mass media such as TV, pamphlets, posters and newspapers improved farmers’ knowledge and practices resulting in a 12% decline in insecticide use. In March 2012 “Women in Ecological Engineering” was launched on International Women’s Day. The change in practices included the planting of nectar rich flowering plants on the bunds. Initially skeptical about such practices, farmers later changed their attitudes. These ecological techniques to reduce vulnerability of the rice crop to planthopper outbreaks are now being promoted in China, Thailand and Vietnam. In order to outscale the ecological engineering principles and techniques, TVE Japan (Television Trust for the Environment) in collaboration with IRRI, is developing a film on this.

TVE Japan is an autonomous, non-profit organization formed in 1995 by a group of senior Japanese broadcasters. A member of the influential Global Environmental Forum of Japan, TVE Japan produces new television programs on environment and development issues relevant to Japan, arranges their broadcast on Japanese television, and organizes film screening and distribution activities across the country. It has always been supportive of TVE Asia Pacific and the Asia Pacific Partner Network. In addition to participating in regional workshops and events, TVE Japan has worked with TVE Asia Pacific in raising funding support from Japanese sources.

Seiko Akiba and Juka Kawaii filming in Kien Giang, Vietnam

Seiko Akiba and Juka Kawaii after taking field shots

The film entitled “Hopper Race” has completed part 1 that describes the planthopper problems in Asia related by Thai farmers. This will be officially launched later in 2012. Part 2 will focus on ecological engineering. Film producer, Ms Juka Kawaai and cameraman Mr Seiko Akiba traveled with us to the provinces of Tien Giang, An Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap and Vinh Long to film the range of ecological engineering implementation, rice farming practices and to conduct interviews with farmers, scientists and local officials. The film will be translated into several Asian languages and distributed through the TVE network of collaborators for television broadcasts and education.

Some pesticide companies use big launching events with raffle draws, free gifts and free handouts to promote products. The companies invite hundreds of farmers from various villages and farmer-groups to attend these events often decorated like a fair with various advertised-media while also and also dance performances and amusements for local people. Such events are often attended by government officials giving speeches for endorsements.

In addition to launching events, some companies use a large network of dealers and retailers. The retailers (kiosk) are often aggressive in supervising and influencing farmers buy particular products because of lucrative sales incentives. Companies also provide them free products to be used in their own fields as demonstrations. Free products for demonstration plots are provided directly to the farmers as well. The network of dealers in each provincial office is built up by setting up at least 1 dealership at the regency level (D-1) with the main purpose to distribute products to the Retailer 1 (R1), Retailer 2 (R2), and Retailer 3 (R3). Retailers from R2 and R3 often use their residence for pesticide storage and sales. It is common to see pesticides being stored in the garage, front terrace, or in the shop-room which are near to sitting room. They do not have special store to keep pesticides in their residence.

R2-level has the responsibility to cover two districts (kecamatan) products to R3. R3 distributes the products to the villages. The hierarchy of retailers is strictly observed. For example, R3 is not allowed to purchase products directly from R1, bypassing R2. This is because of the price structures at different retailer levels. Retailers have high incentives to increase their sale targets as they can ascend to the next level.

Close relationships with retailers and rewards as incentives

Pesticide companies maintain close relationships with retailers. Some are used as “cases” for the local company executives to show off to headquarter marketing directors. They receive special attention and gifts, including a First-Aid Box with company logo, boxes of vitamins, fruits and even sets of equipment for Islamic prayers.

First aid box in dealer’s house provided by the company

Rewards and price incentives are given to retailers. For instance some retailers have electronic equipment and even home furniture as rewards. The sales of a ton of products would normally qualifies for “small” prizes, such as cell phones, digital cameras, radios and DVD players. Retailers can accumulate the rewards points to qualify for the “bigger” prizes, like refrigerator, LCD TV, and washing machine. Sometimes the reward points may be exchanged for cash. More valuable rewards are in the form of cars, tractors, and transportation costs to go abroad, including to Mecca for a pilgrimage or Haj. Free trips to domestic tourist destinations are often organized for the retailers’ families in regular activities.